Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Torturer-In-Chief

Bush wants to "re-define" the meaning of torture. I can't believe this is even a subject for discussion. He is proposing that the little moral high ground we have left in the world's eyes be further tarnished by what is clearly a move to cover his own ass. Once again, Bush serves as a reminder of how far we have fallen since he and his cabal of lying warmongering thieves stole the White House. He wants to legitimize torture and make us equals to the countries we have previously condemned for using torture. He wants to take us out of the elevated realm of civilized behavior and into the same world of the evil-doers he condemns.

There are several things he has conveniently ignored in trying to backdate the law in order to prevent his third term being served out in a prison cell. The first one being that most our courts, the courts of law in the USA that are the envy of many in the world, would not allow confessions obtained by torture. As far better minds than Bush have determined, such evidence does not demonstrate truth but rather the desire for the person being tortured to make the torture stop.


Any of us, no matter what our political and religious beliefs, have a tolerance threshold for pain. Once we reach that level we will confess to anything, even things we could never do, no matter what the circumstances. That's why it is called torture, because it is something few human beings can endure for any period of time. And it is not valid in courts of law, which is why Bush has his secret installations to deal with that little technicality. It is why he avoids trying in a real court any of the thousands who are rotting away in illegal prisons without ever being brought to trial or charged with a crime that is related to terrorism.

Bush claims that we need to torture people in order to prevent terror attacks in the planning stages. So he rounds up everyone who looks Arabic or went anywhere near a Mosque or is of the Islamic faith, and sticks them in secret prisons where they are brutally tortured until they confess to something, anything that will then be put together and announced as a terror alert, preferably before major and minor elections.



Keep in mind this is the same man who holds the record for executions in Texas while Governor. With this record, his attempt to make torture legal, his assault on civil liberties, and his penchant for being the punisher-in-chief, he gives Torquemada and the Inquisition a run for their money.


The other thing he fails to understand is this puts our own troops in severe danger. He would understand this if he did not shirk his own military duty. He would understand this if he ever put his own ass in a position where it could be captured.



I have had many discussions with a former POW. He told me many times that his captors were very familiar with the limits of the Geneva Convention and followed those limits because they knew their own troops would be treated accordingly. Strange as it may seem to many, civilized countries, which is most of the world and not the one painted and portrayed by Bush as "all evil all the time," go by our guidelines on how to treat prisoners.




We are, or rather WERE, the model of decency throughout the civilized world. Having rules against torture, against secret courts and tribunals, being allowed to see the evidence of the crime we are accused of committing, those were the things that made us good in the rest of the world, the things that made us occupy a higher moral ground in their eyes. Bush is taking this and more away from us in order to cover his own crimes, to perpetuate his own mental illness and greed.


And to refute those who say well how are we going to stop another terror attack if we don't torture, I say to you there's nothing anyone can do about the murdering fanatics, anymore then there was anything we could do to prevent our own homegrown fanatic McVeigh from blowing up the federal building. We did not round up southern white men and torture them to find out where the next attack was going to be. We followed the rules of law, gave him a fair trial and then executed him according to those laws.



This is how morality works. This is how you can talk about morality to the rest of the world and not seem like a damn hypocrite. Obviously it is just one more thing Bush just does not get and we are the ones who end up having to pay for his ignorance.

Design from Ursine Logic Changing hearts and minds one t-shirt at a time.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Who Bush Thinks He Is


I finally figured out who Bush "sees" himself as--one of those crazy televangelists. He's watched too damned much tv and one of them snuck in, sucked out all his gray matter, and inserted Reverend Dubya, put on earth to save YOU! I've read in several places that the Grahams of tv preacherdom and walmart style church baptisms are the ones who brought him to his knees, along with thousands of other ill-educated, bigoted, Bible-thumping morons who are now considered foreign policy experts. That's "experts," as in their limited little pea brains had some poetic metaphor from the Bible read to them and interpreted for them as some sign the world was coming to an end.


What those poor fools stuck somewhere in the middle of the evolutionary process between pond scum and prehensile tails fail to understand is that they are the ones creating the end of the world. It's not some them. It is THEM with their crazy talk of nukes and big old bombs and devils hiding in the ground way beneath the earth. I cannot imagine anything more destructive and dangerous than a bunch of unevolved, dumb, jingoistic, goose-stepping, lacking in cranial capacity idiots put in charge of things like nukes. Now THAT'S what scares ME.


But Bush, like the preaching fool that he is, is on the campaign of fear trail for Jesus, who apparently favors the Republican party. He is spreading stories of demons, devils, ghosties, ghoulies, evil-doers, and other residents of his own personal hell. He is shouting from the pulpit that we must believe or we will fry in the hellfire of people with names he can't pronounce. He is threatening our eternal damnation if we don't vote Republican. He is prophesizing the end of the world without telling us he is the one with his finger on the nuclear trigger. And like all good for nothing televangelists, he is picking our pockets in the name of salvation.


If there is such thing as a god, I'm sure that he, she, or it will be profoundly pissed at those like Bush who use fear and oppression to crush the unbelievers in god's name.


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Friday, September 15, 2006

A Measure Of Your Humanity

I'm not much for celebrities because I tend to value people based on how they affect me with their humanity and not what they do for a living. But lately those in the world spotlight have used their celebrity status to do good in the world. In this way, they affect me with their humanity and I applaud and thank them. I especially thank George Clooney because not only does he put himself out there for those who are suffering, he went and saw that suffering for himself and let it affect HIS humanity.

Today he told the UN Security Council Members that millions of lives were at stake in Darfur and that we, as human beings, need to do something about it. He asked them to send peacekeepers to the region to stop the genocide going on. He put himself out there for people who are having a difficult time getting noticed in a world where there is so much war, hatred, division, and tragedy. Because he did this, I am speaking up and asking all of you to do so as well. We have until September 30th to get our voices heard because if we don't, as Mr. Clooney said: "After September 30, you won't need the UN. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones."

Darfur is not just a place on the map where people are dying; it is a test of our owh humanity, our own compassion, our own right to even call ourselves human beings. We had the chance to stop the killings in Rwanda by not demanding the UN act then and close to 800,000 people were murdered. This is happening again in Darfur and again there are not enough voices demanding that the killing stop. We MUST speak up or the blood of more human beings will be on our hands. So far over 200,000 have been murdered and over two million people have become displaced since 2003. They are homeless, traumatized, and living in fear of their lives and those of friends and family. We must help them or our own humanity suffers.

On Sunday, The Save Darfur Coalition, a combined force of over 170 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations, will rally in New York's Central Park. There will also be simultaneous events worldwide. Get out there and let your voice be heard. The African Union's Peace and Security Council will meet on Monday in New York, just before this year's U.N. General Assembly speeches. Let them know your voice speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. If we are to move forward into the next century, let us do it with our humanity intact and a record on Human and Civil Rights our grandchildren will point to with pride instead of shame.
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Are You Scared Yet?


Do you know what a dying beast does? It puffs itself up with one last gasping breath and snarls threateningly in an attempt to overcome its enemy by fear because it has nothing left to fight with. It huffs, puffs, gasps, accuses, belittles, intimidates, scares the crap out of, digs up past enemies in an attempt to distract you from its death throes, and it won't stop until you are quivering in fear in your hole in the ground. Remember that hole in the ground? The one with all the duct tape and rolls of plastic? That hole. That's the one it hopes you crawl into so you won't notice it is all bluff and bullshit.

This is Bushco now. It will stop at nothing to scare people because that is all it has to run on. Fear is the Republican platform. Fear is the Republican agenda. Fear is all it has and it hopes you buy into it because if you don't, then there is nothing. They can't run on getting Osama because they didn't. They can't run on protecting us at home because Katrina proved they had no interest in doing so. They can't run on lowering your taxes because unless you are wealthy, you didn't get a tax break. They can't run on honor and integrity because they've stolen, cheated, betrayed, committed treasonous acts for revenge and personal enrichment. They can't run on the economy because the housing market is going to hell, gas prices are insane, and people go to work sick because they can't afford to take a day off, even if they did have health insurance--which most don't. They can't run on freedom because we have less civil rights now than ever before. They can't run on tolerance because their agenda was to create hatred and division. They can't run on Democracy because that's for other countries. They can't run on education because teachers have to buy school supplies from their own pockets. They can't run on peace because their whole reign has been to make war on anyone and anything in order to destroy our rights under the guise of "being at war." They can't run on honesty because they have lied about everything and everyone since they first soiled the government they lied and cheated to take over. They have nothing but fear.

So listen carefully to the hatemongers on right-wing radio. Watch for the too slick message packaged in nice neat little bundles of propaganda when you turn on the TV. Watch who they attack, what they say, and why. Know it for the distraction, the lie, the diversion it truly is. Nothing this administration says or does is honest, truthful, or ethical. They will stop at nothing to keep power because the minute they lose it their next term will be behind bars.

That makes them very very dangerous. Pay close attention. Take nothing at face value. Their corporate handles will not let you kill their golden goose very easily. Know your enemy, your true enemy, and the fear tactics will roll off you like the shit it is.

Design from Ursine Logic

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Friday, September 01, 2006

Impeach


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